Horsey!

Horse Riding

Our cousin Whitney hooked Maddie up with a horseback ride tonight. Maddie absolutely loved it. She did really well and was fearless from the beginning. She definitely wants to go back and "ride more horsey."

Family Photos

Hello, my lovely readers!

Recently (like a week and a half ago), Jon, Maddie, and I ventured out to Prairie Center and met the lovely and talented Sarah Dickerson for a little family photo session. First of all, seriously, if you haven't been to Prairie Center and you live in the area, you should totally check it out. It's a little "rugged" as Sarah described it, but if you wear good walking shoes, it's gorgeous. Lots of wildflowers, ponds, trees, etc. (Um, also giganto bull-snakes, if you get off the path to try to take pictures by some trees, so I don't recommend that...)

Secondly, Sarah was great. She trekked all over the place with us, was patient with Maddie, and most importantly, she got some great shots. I'm only going to post our favorite shot here because sometimes uploading photos onto this thing is a pain, but you should definitely check out more images from our session on her blog. (We've also placed her blog in our list to the right, so feel free to check out more of her work, if you have time.) We're buying a disc of all the pictures from this session, so we'll put them all up somewhere online when we have that, so you can browse if you're so inclined. (And if you're not, I totally get that. I know we're stunning, but even that amount of pretty gets old after the first 20 pictures or so.)

Anyway, all in all, Sarah was awesome, the light was awesome, and thank goodness it wasn't nearly as hot as it could have been. Oh, and it should be noted, Maddie will do about anything for raisins. I think we went through about 3/4 of a bag...

I Be Two!

To my lovely Madeline:

Oh, baby girl, where do I even start? I guess, first, I should start by dropping the “baby,” since you no longer, and haven’t for some time, fit that label. Today, you are two (go ahead, hold up all five fingers and tell me you’re two), and there’s no more pretending that you still retain even the smallest vestige of babyhood. You sleep in a “big girl” bed, you wear big girl clothes, and you use big girl words (we won’t mention the fact that yesterday you confused couscous and goose, and told me that couscous goes “Honk, honk!”).

I wonder if you’ll ever get tired of your birthday being a bittersweet day for me (and maybe your Daddy, I’m not sure). I do love watching you grow-up, watching you discover your world more fully and find your place in it, but at the same time, your birth day will always be a reminder of the things we’ll never get back, the moments we’ve probably already forgotten. You move so fast (seriously, child, you’ve got to slow down at some point—it’s like you’re training for some sort of toddler Iron Man), and it’s all I can do to keep pace.

Sometimes, when I look at you, I can’t believe what I see. A year ago, you had a handful of words. At your last birthday party, you were still about 60:40 on your walk to crawl ratio, and you certainly weren’t jumping off the hearth while shouting, “Mommy, watch ‘dis! Watch me, Mommy!” Two years ago, you couldn’t even hold your head up or make eye contact. Now you have entire conversations (mostly about bouncy castles, The Wiggles, and cookies, it must be said), you’ve mostly mastered the stairs, and you insist on picking out at least one item of your own clothing every morning. (Note to older Maddie: I hope, by this point, you’ve learned that Elmo socks do not go with everything.)

So, now, you’re two, even if you don’t know it, and I just wanted to say that no matter how fast you keep moving, your daddy and I will always do our best to keep up with you, even when you’d rather we didn’t. You are still one of the best things in our lives, and we love you so very much. Happy Birthday, Madster! You be two.

Love always,

Mommy

I Go Underwater!

Perhaps not surprisingly, this post is out of order. I've been meaning to write it for about a month, but well, New York and a family reunion got in the way, so... Anyway, we enrolled Maddie in swimming lessons for the first time this summer.

This particular class--the Parent-Tot Session A, through Olathe Parks and Rec--was two weeks long, four times a week. In reality, there was very little "swimming" going on. It was mostly a way to familiarize the kiddos (anywhere from 3 months to 3 years) with water. Held by their parents the entire 30 minute lesson, the "tots" blew bubbles in the water, kicked, moved their arms, did supported front- and back-floats, jumped from the side of the pool, and horror or all horrors, went underwater. Oh yes, Miss Maddie, the girl who previously had to be laid down in a very shallow bath to wash and rinse her hair, went underwater.

While the actual act of going under was scary and quite unpopular, once accomplished, she would proudly tell anyone who would listen, "I go unnawaddeh!" I also found that it was easier to let her just slip underwater after a jump than telling her about it in advance. Strangely, surprise-dunking is more acceptable than a full-body soaking you're prepared for, I guess.

All in all, while she certainly can't swim at all still (and that wasn't an expectation going into this, so no disappointment) she's definitely more comfortable in the water, pool and bath. You can now wash her hair in the usual way, by dumping cupfuls of water over her head, and she'll blow bubbles in just about any water she can find. I may try to get her in Session B in the winter with the hopes that even though she won't be quite three, they'll let her sneak into the first instructor only level next summer. Who knows, maybe we have the next Michael Phelps living under our roof--you know, minus the whole I'm-too-stupid-to-know-not-to-smoke-weed-around-a-camera thing. Below, pictures!

NYCD3

So, we're home now, which is sad and wonderful at the same time: Sad, because the real Manhattan was fun, but wonderful because, well, MADDIE! (I will try to talk in a later post about the serious withdrawal both Jon and I were going through the entire time we were gone.)

Anyway, I'm supposed to be talking our third and final day in NYC, not how awesome my daughter is. It's not like we don't have a whole freaking blog for that... Ahem. Yesterday morning we rediscovered something we learned that last time we were in the Big Apple--the city that "never" sleeps at least dozes a lot. If you want something other than pizza after 10 p.m. or anything other than tap water before 10 a.m., be prepared to walk for it, especially if it's Sunday. We hit the streets at 9:30 in the morning, and we still had to walk about five or six blocks just to find coffee. (And what we did find--they out-bittered Starbucks. Yeah... After Gregory's Coffee, we wandered up to Central Park to finish our walking tour.)

Two stops in, we got a call from an old college friend of mine who was also in town. He and Jon had realized, via Facebook, that we were all in town, so we met up with Scott for an early lunch. It was good, if random, to see him again, and I didn't mind spending an hour or so sitting in the a.c., munching on a sandwich.

That short interlude over, we walked back to the park and finished our tour. It was really great walking around the park, which is of course gorgeous, and both of us being amateur history buffs (just different preferences when it comes to most interesting periods), Jon and I both enjoyed hearing about the creation of and original intentions for New York's "backyard", but, um, it was hot. Hothothothothothot. Hot. Haaaaauuuught. We'd been walking for 2.5 straight days at this point, and both of us had matching blisters on our feet, sore calves, sore backs, and stiff joints. So, enjoyable but painful (much like I'd imagine certain fetishes to be, if you're into that sort of thing), also a constant reminder that, damn, we're getting old.

Central Park toured, we went back to the hotel, where I sat and finished the blog while Jon ran out to get sandwiches from Murray Hill Market. After we ate and rested our poor feet, we took the subway up to Times Square to see what we could get at the TKTS booth. The TKTS booth has got to be one of the best things that's happened to the theater/tourism industry in NYC. See Broadway shows don't always sell out, and much like hotels and airlines are starting to realize, it's better to sell an empty seat at a discount than not fill the seat at all. So, on the day of a show, starting at 3 p.m., the TKTS booth offers seats to both on and off Broadway shows for anywhere from 20%-50% off the original ticket price. It's really an amazing deal. Jon and I were able to see Avenue Q for slightly more than $50/person, which is about $50 less than face value. The show was awesome, but it's, well, definitely not for the faint of heart. There's language, what could mildly be termed as toilet humour, and puppet sex (I'm not kidding. It sounds a bit gross, but really, it's hilarious). Anyway, top rate show for half the price, fantastic. If you're even in town and you want to see a show but you're not set on any particular show (obviously new or super-popular shows are harder to come by), I highly recommend this option. You do have to physically go down and stand in line for tickets, but as long as you don't go right at 3 p.m., it's worth the short wait.

After the show, we toyed with the idea of going out for a small snack and drinks, but no. We were both exhausted, and since our flight left at 7 a.m. this morning, we decided we needed sleep more than food and beer. (Maybe that's really when I knew we were getting old...) We hit up one of the several hundred souvenir shops dotting all areas of the city, grabbed some t-shirts for the special kiddos in our life, and went to bed.

And that, dear readers, is pretty much that. If I get around to it, I'll post something later this week about the "aftermath" of NYC--getting home, how Maddie fared, etc., but Jon's off to his brother's bachelor party mega-weekend on Thursday, and I'm off to a family reunion in Arkansas on Friday, so time may be short. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, check out more of Jon's photo skills below and feel free to share any thoughts in the comments.

Back over the rainbow,

A & J

Empire State Building

The next two photos are my inner 'Ghostbusters' geek coming out!

Opening Credits:

New York Public Library

The church in this photo was stepped on by Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The building to its right is Dana Barrett's apartment building.

Central Park

Time's Square

NYCD2

Good morning! We've now completed day two here in NYC, and while we're tired and still sore, we're looking forward to getting back out there and enjoying our last day here.

Yesterday, we got started a little later then we'd planned, so we hit up a little bakery near our hotel for coffee and mini tarts/cupcakes. (Maddie, I just want you to know that while your Daddy may think cupcakes are acceptable for breakfast, they are not. You, my love, may not eat cupcakes for breakfast until at least college.) Following this, we walked 30 blocks or so to Katz's deli for lunch: pastrami on rye, potato salad, and a huge heaping plate of pickles. Soooo good...mmmmmm.

After lunch, we took the subway to the Met, where we managed to fit in the Greek and Roman, Roof Garden, Picasso, European Paintings, and Egyptian exhibits. I'm not even really sure what to say about the Met. We spent three hours there, and we still barely touched the place. I would love to go back and spend more time there--preferably when my legs and feet don't hurt quite so badly. We did pony up the extra cash for the audio tour, and I would highly recommend that. Yes, it's $14 we don't have now, but while I know I like art, I don't know what makes art "art", so it's nice to have someone tell me what I'm supposed to be looking at and why this particular painting of 17th century peasants is different than those other three paintings of 17th century peasants.

Met time over, we schlepped back to our hotel, where we quickly showered and changed for the wedding. Then, we hopped in a cab for what has got to be the most pointless cab ride ever. See, Bryant Park Grill, where the ceremony and reception were held, is only five blocks from our hotel, and the only reason we were taking a cab was because while my 4" inch heels were (and are) totally hot, they were not (and aren't) practical when it comes to such pedestrian matters as walking. (Do you like how I managed to use pedestrian there? I know. Sometimes, I even impress myself.) We got in the cab, went 2.5 blocks, wasted seven minutes, and because a street was closed, still had to walk 2.5 blocks to the wedding, where we squeezed past the already assembled wedding party to get to our seats just before they started seating the parents. Yeah...

My snark about lame cabbies over, the wedding. Oh, the wedding. I don't even know that I can describe the loveliness that was this wedding. The ceremony and cocktail hour that followed were on the roof of the grill, and the meal and dance were in the main area. Aside from the 97 degree heat (ugh, and again, ugh), it was gorgeous. The bride, groom, and bridal party were stunning, the food was excellent, and music was awesome (Seriously, Sam Cook's "You Send Me" for the first dance. Very retro-hip.), and to top it all off, the groom rocked the mic for a bit with "Disco Inferno." (He apparently spent some time trying to be a Broadway star, so he's, yeah, good.) Overall, best. wedding. ever., and it makes me sad that my writing skills are not such as to do it justice.

We tried to do the whole top of the Empire State building thing after, but um, fail. It was midnight, and there were still huge lines, and I was in heels, so we called it a night, grabbed a cab back to the hotel, and crashed.

Today's agenda:

COFFEE!
Finish our Central Park walking tour
Eat something sometime
Maybe a Broadway show?
More eating
Pack...

Still sore,

A & J

NYCD1

Greetings from the Big Apple! For those of you who don't know (and that's got to be a small number since I'm pretty sure we told about anyone who'd listen), Jon and I are in New York to attend the wedding of a good college friend of mine, so we thought we'd do a day-by-day blog of what we're getting up to in the city that never sleeps.

Our flight left at 7 a.m. yesterday morning, so we were up at 4:45 a.m. (actually, I was up at 3:45 a.m. because my secret inner eight-year-old was too excited to sleep) showering, feeding the cats, last minute packing, and main-lining coffee. Flight (Midwest) went off without a hitch, and we arrived at our hotel around 11:15 a.m. We're staying at the Hotel Roger Williams, a little boutique joint near enough to the wedding site to make a short cab ride. (Jon wanted to walk, but I showed him my heels and asked how many blocks he thought he could carry me.) I'll talk more about our accomodations in a later post.

After dropping our bags at the hotel, we walked over to Bryant Park, where the wedding will be held, then made a brief impromtu stop at the Walgreens in Times Square for an umbrella. After that, we stopped at Heartland Brewery for a pick-me-up beer for Jon, who was feeling a wee bit grumpy after his unexpected second shower (little did he know what was to come).

I think most of you know that Jon and I are sort of wanna-be-foodies. I will never truly be considered a foodie, simply because I won't eat fois gras and veal on principle, and I don't like fat or skin or any of the supposedly tasty stuff on my meat, but we do like good food. We're fanatical Top Chef and Top Chef Masters viewers, and when we found out we were going to be in town during NYC's Restaurant Week, we felt we must partake, at least a couple of times. Having established this, we made lunch reservations at Chef Marcus Samuelson's Aquavit restaurant. The food was very good and very interesting as well, with both of us getting to try a few things we don't normally eat (cold fish for one, and I don't mean smoked fish, just served cold). The meal was still pretty pricey, once you added in drinks and coffee, but it's one of those things that I think you have to do when you're here: Eat a really good meal and a well respected restaurant, and Restaurant Week allows you to do that without spending nearly as much as you would otherwise.


Following this, we checked into the hotel and changed for an audio tour of Central Park and the Yankees/Royals game. I should say that while it had been raining earlier, it was not raining by this point. In fact, the sun was out. In fact the sun was out and the humidity was rising. In fact, the sun was out, the humidity was rising, and the air was not moving, not even a little bit. It was awful outside, and the subway platforms were even worse. However, under the very determined leadership of Jon, we perservered and made it to Central Park to start our audio tour. Sadly, there was some argument as to whether that building was (me) or was not (Jon) Tavern on the Green (it was), and we spent a large portion of the time allotted back tracking, trying to find stuff. I think we're going to try again on Sunday morning.

Sweaty and a little grumpy now, we (under the leadership of Captain Jon) walked 20 blocks or so to a gelato place , then spent about 15 minutes (Jon's edit: Alaina embelishes) trying to find the subway, so we could get over to the Bronx for the game. Once we got there, we had to fight the crowds--including one of New York's finest, who took one look at Jon in his Royals' jersey and took to his megaphone to tell him to get back on the train and go back to where he came from--and a fiesty ticket agent who was quite sharp with me for not having my ID out, even though there were no signs indicating I would need my ID to pick up tickets at will call. Whatever...

Anyway, we watch the first 4.5 innings of the game, and then it starts to rain. We were up under the awning, so at first we were just getting hit by the occasional sprinkle. Then it was really raining. Then...it was cloudbursting. Seriously. The rain moved to torrential downpour territory, and the wind was blowing so hard that even standing against the back wall of Yankee Stadium, it felt like you were getting hit by a sprinkler. Everyone was soaked. They finally resumed the game about 9:30 p.m., so we stayed until the beginning of the eighth inning and then called it quits. After the rather crowded and lengthy subway ride back to our area of town, we grabbed some take-out from a little 24 hour Korean place, ate it on our bed, and fell into an exhausted sleep.


Today's Agenda:

• Grab breakfast and coffee
• The Met! (Yay, someone's super-excited!)
• Maybe Lunch at Katz's Deli
• Wedding
• Late-night view from the Empire State Building?

More tomorrow!

Best wishes and sore muscles,

A & J

Sayonara Crib

As you can see from this post's title, we've bid the crib a fond farewell, letting the solid barrier between sleeping (or not-so-sleeping) Maddie languish in the basement, awaiting sibling to be conceived later. We actually did this about two weeks ago, but you know me and the fear of blog karma--I was worried that talking about the fact that it was going relatively smoothly (we're dealing with an almost-two-year-old here, so relatively is all, well, relative) would totally jinx us, and we'd go through two weeks of sleepless hell as payment for our smugness.

Truth be told, we can't really take all, or even most of the credit. We only ordered the toddler bed rails (we have a convertible crib) and reconfigured the crib because Laura had Maddie start sleeping on a mat for naps about a month ago. To be fair to the Madster, though, Laura can't take too much credit either. Aside from the occasional leaving of the bed or, ahem, bugging the other child sleeping in the room, she's done beautifully. The first day, Laura was very clear with her that she was going to sleep like a big girl, and she hadhadhad to stay on her mat, and if she moved, Laura would have to come up and put her back to bed. Maddie laid down on the mat, on her back, arms at her sides, and three minutes later when Laura checked on her, she was fast asleep, still on her back, arms at her sides.

So, two Sundays ago, we did the big switcheroo. The first nap trial wasn't so great. We ended up having to bust out the "pacis" to get her to take a nap. Since then, like I said, relatively smooth. Bedtimes have been a little rough, wake-ups have been a little early, and we've gone back to the crap-nap, which is my new term for the length of her at-home naps as compared to the marathons she regularly bangs out at daycare. BUT, she is sleeping through the night, and while she does talk to herself (or scream for me) before going to bed, she doesn't get out of bed, most nights. It's going to be a transition, and we were prepared for this. (Not really looking forward to it, but prepared.) Anyway, here's a picture of our big girl sleeping in her big girl bed, just like a big girl...big girl, big girl, big girl. It's bittersweet, as are most milestones.

Sweet dreams, baby girl. (Yes, she piled all that up herself. I don't know.)

P.S. - So, last night, she slept until 6:45 a.m., which is a good half hour later than she's slept previously, in the new bed. Also, today, she took a 2.5 hour nap at home, which is a good hour longer than she's slept previously, in the new bed. Yes, yes, I know. Bring it on, blog karma!

Sunday on Campus

It was such a pretty day today we decided to take a walk on campus. Hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July!